The buzz of activity that can be heard in vineyards all around the Northern Hemisphere these days means that long months of plant management and weather-watching are finally coming to an end. Picking in southern British Columbia is well underway, a couple weeks later than growers normally expect.
Reports from Creston Valley vineyards vary — some report that grapes have ripened to an acceptable level but express concerns about flavour, while others couldn’t be happier with sugar levels and flavours.
This summer, whenever we visited Baillie-Grohman Winery, it seemed inevitable that there would be some activity going on in the vineyard. Winemaker Dan Barker is a believer in close management of the canopy, the leaves that grow directly around each grape cluster. From his New Zealand winery, he issued directions to clear leaves that might shade the clusters from the early day sun, but to keep leaves that would provide shade from heat later in the day. It’s a labour-intensive process, but removal of leaves also enables plenty of air to circulate around the grapes as they mature, lessening the likelihood that mildew and molds will take hold.
Last week I visited Skimmerhorn Winery, where pickers were harvesting Marechal Foch grapes. Early indications are that those grapes should result in some excellent wines — the grapes I sampled as I wandered through the rows were pleasantly sweet and very flavourful.
I also made a visit to the construction site of a third winery in Wynndel, where Wynnwood wines will be made. Manager Dave Basaraba has been scrambling to get the building completed so that the wines, made from grapes grown at the company’s Duck Lake vineyard, can be made on site. Workers were busy on the walls, floors and roof, while plastic-wrapped oak barrels and stainless steel fermentation tanks sat waiting nearby. Basaraba had his fingers crossed that everything would come together in a timely fashion.
Visits to small operations are a very pleasant experience. At Baillie-Grohman I tasted barrel samples of Chardonnay, which Barker had just blended from the several barrels that have been holding the wine since he returned to New Zealand last year. Owners Bob Johnson and Petra Flaa have been monitoring the wine’s progress, but it was left to Barker to do the actual blending. Early results look like the 2010 Chardonnay will be a very nice wine, and more complex than the 2009 vintage.
The next day I chatted with pickers at Skimmerhorn, who seemed to be enjoying their work in the cool sunshine. I also got to see Kiwi winemaker Mark Rattray for the first time this year, and photographed him as he dumped lugs of Foch into the de-stemmer, which separates the grapes from their woody stems in almost magical fashion. The grapes are then allowed to slowly begin the fermentation process as they sit on their skins, which adds colour and tannins to the final product. Most white wine grapes are immediately crushed and have skins removed so the resulting wine will have pure light colours and low tannins.
News from around the Pacific Northwest is that this will be a vintage that calls on winemakers to be very active in the wine-making, not leaving great quality grapes to do their own thing. A freeze last November in Washington has reduced vineyard production, especially in the Walla Walla area, and the cool start to the 2011 growing season has vintners in Oregon and the Okanagan leaving fruit to ripen as long as possible before bringing them in off the vine. But great wines often come out of challenging growing conditions and it is up to the winemakers to meet the challenge.
I’m looking forward to some good 2011 wines, though they might not arrive in quantities that winery owners would prefer.
Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.